One of my numerous favourite ayahs

I've been asked to state my favourite ayat or surah before and I find it very difficult to state one or even a few. Because truly, there are NUMEROUS favourite verses and surahs, some are too long to put here.

The Quran is truly a miraculous book, a book of eloquence. So eloquent that sometimes a simple sentence can carry so much meaning and generate so much thought in my mind. The subtlety.. Subhanallaah.

So I'd like to share one such ayat - one of my many many favourites - which had me pondering for quite a bit. I thought about the things we do in our daily lives, the things we earnestly fight for and spend so much time on in our lives. Are we learning and doing the relevant? If we are turning away from God and from His Words, Allah asks in Surah At Takwir 81:26

فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ

"Whither, then, will you go?"

(Then where are you going?)

Simple Mac and Cheese

With the maid gone for her holidays, I'm left to think, especially on weekends, what to feed the kids.
On Sunday, I was in Singapore and I had wanted to get them nasi ayam or maybe pasta from spice.. and then I saw that the price was like SGD12 - this is for a single meal.
So I thought.. for that price, I can go get the ingredients and cook for 5-6 person at home, something simple.

So I looked up for a 'simple mac and cheese recipe'. And alhamdulillaah I found one..
Simple to me means, not too many ingredients, especially ones that I don't recognise.

This is again, my version of the recipe I got, because of several factors. Things like, I don't have enough of the ingredient.

They asked for 220gm shredded cheddar cheese. I remembered I have it (un-grated) in the fridge. I was happy to see the box indicate that it's 220gm, but when I took the cheese out, I saw that some of it was already cut.. I weighed the cheese, I only had 170gm left and the one end of that cheese was hardened. I grated what I could and threw away the hardened part.

Then they asked for '220gm all American cheese' - what is that? I saw that we have some sandwich cheese, 3 of them weighed about 60gm, so I used 11 of them. About 220gms

Mustard - dry mustard? I couldn't find 'dry mustard' at the supermarket. So I just got a small bottle of mustard. As for the pepper, I didn't realise the recipe asked for black pepper, I just grabbed normal pepper powder and put a heavy dash or two.

In conclusion, the final product turned out OK - just nice. Not too cheesy, Masyaa Allaah.
So I'm sticking with this recipe, insyaa Allaah.

Ingredients:

1/2 medium size onion
30 gm butter.
220 gm macaroni (like half the usual packet)
2 tablespoon flour
3/4 teaspoon mustard
A dash or 2 - of pepper
450 ml milk
150 gm shredded cheddar cheese (actually the recipe calls for 220gms.. but I only had 170gm, and 10-15 gms was hardened.. I just used what I can get and it was cheesy enough!
10-12 pieces of the sandwich cheese cut into stripes or just koyak2 kan - we're going to melt it anyway.

Method :

1. Bismillaah.
2. Preheat oven at 175 dec C.
3. Boil the macaroni with a bit of salt and a tsp of olive oil until soft - like usual.
* (this is optional, I put it in so that the macaroni don't stick to each other).
4. Cut onions into small cubes or chop.
5. Heat butter in pan until melt, then put in onions.
6. Saute onions until soft.
7. Put in the flour and mix well. (1-2 mins)
8. Pour in the milk and mix well again.
9. Put in the mustard and pepper.
10. Keep on stirring and mixing all until the whole mixture thickens and boils.
11. Put in all the cheese and mix well until all cheese have melted and is well mixed.
12. Drain macaroni and put into the pan for baking. Pour in the milk mixture and mix with macaroni well.
13. Put into oven and bake until it's hot and bubbly (about 10-15 mins)
14. Let it cool a bit (about 10 mins) before serving.

I like lemons!

http://eatlocalgrown.com/article/12501-45-cool-uses-for-lemons.html

Good husband, bad wife. Bad husband, good wife. Good woman.

ضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا امْرَأَتَ نُوحٍ وَامْرَأَتَ لُوطٍ كَانَتَا تَحْتَ عَبْدَيْنِ مِنْ عِبَادِنَا صَالِحَيْنِ فَخَانَتَاهُمَا فَلَمْ يُغْنِيَا عَنْهُمَا مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا وَقِيلَ ادْخُلَا النَّارَ مَعَ الدَّاخِلِينَ

وَضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا لِّلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا امْرَأَتَ فِرْعَوْنَ إِذْ قَالَتْ رَبِّ ابْنِ لِي عِندَكَ بَيْتًا فِي الْجَنَّةِ وَنَجِّنِي مِن فِرْعَوْنَ وَعَمَلِهِ وَنَجِّنِي مِنَ الْقَوْمِ الظَّالِمِينَ

وَمَرْيَمَ ابْنَتَ عِمْرَانَ الَّتِي أَحْصَنَتْ فَرْجَهَا فَنَفَخْنَا فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِنَا وَصَدَّقَتْ بِكَلِمَاتِ رَبِّهَا وَكُتُبِهِ وَكَانَتْ مِنَ الْقَانِتِينَ

Allah sets forth, for an example to the Unbelievers, the wife of Noah and the wife of Lut: they were (respectively) under two of our righteous servants, but they were false to their (husbands), and they profited nothing before Allah on their account, but were told: "Enter ye the Fire along with (others) that enter!"

And Allah sets forth, as an example to those who believe the wife of Pharaoh: Behold she said: "O my Lord! Build for me, in nearness to Thee, a mansion in the Garden, and save me from Pharaoh and his doings, and save me from those that do wrong";

And Mary the daughter of 'Imran, who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into (her body) of Our spirit; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His Revelations, and was one of the devout (servants).

Surah At-Tahrim, 66:10-12
(English translation by Yusuf Ali via iQuran)

Going back to JB by public transport

Left office at 645pm.
Walked about 8mins to bus interchange and queued for beancurd maybe about 3 mins. Walked to the end of the bus queue which was about a hundred metres long. Boarded the bus at 716pm.
730 we reached Tuas chexkppint. But there were buses queuing to alight passengers. Got down about 740pm. Short queue at immigration passed immigration 745pm boarded the bus 748pm
754pm reached JB custom. Cleared custom and start queuing for bus 758pm.
Boarded bus 809pm.
836pm alighted opposite Giant Bukit Indah. Crossed the road and took my parked bike home and reached 845pm.